Joshua Abe new deal plans thrown into disarray after heart-breaking blow

Liverpool’s blueprint to lock down one of English football’s most coveted teenagers has been plunged into uncertainty after Joshua Abe, the 15-year-old winger who has been on the club’s books since the age of four, suffered a season-ending leg-bone injury while on England Under-16 duty last week.

The Warrington-born attacker, who hammered a hat-trick against Leeds United in his most recent Premier League Under-18 appearance, had accelerated from academy curiosity to first-team training-ground regular, working under senior coach Arne Slot in a clear signal of Liverpool’s long-term intentions.

Yet the fracture, revealed by Abe himself on Instagram—“Tough one to take having my season cut short, but everything happens for a reason”—arrives at the worst possible moment for a club racing to secure the signature of a player who cannot legally put pen to a professional contract until 2027.

With Abe ineligible to sign pro terms for another 18 months, Liverpool’s only formal leverage is a scholarship offer. That thin thread has encouraged a queue of elite suitors: Real Madrid, who recently hosted Abe at the Bernabeu, plus Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea, all monitoring the left-footed right winger viewed internally as a potential heir to Mohamed Salah.

The injury stalls Liverpool’s charm offensive—built around senior-squad exposure and a fast-tracked pathway—but does little to dim external interest. Abe, represented by Tyler Alexander-Arnold’s PLG agency, will spend the remainder of the campaign rehabbing while the club and its rivals wait to see whether the setback alters the teenager’s thinking on his next step.

For now, Anfield’s best hope of retaining their home-grown starlet rests on a scholarship deal and the promise of a future first-team role, a pitch complicated by a long lay-off and the circling sharks of European football.